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7-5-03 // 12.16 pm the world collapsed on a sunday morning NP: R.E.M. - "Out Of Time" I was 20 years old, still in college, not quite yet of legal drinking age, but close enough to be rather antsy about it. There were places to drink, of course, but you had to know your stuff, which places were lenient, which places had bartenders or waitstaff who didn't really card, or at least turned a blind eye. However, there was this pool hall on Main down by the river in Cape that we used to go to. It had a little bar at the back but I could never drink, as the guy working it was rather draconian. In any case, I used to go there with Jon quite a bit. Sometimes other people would also be along -- Ryan H, Carney, Steph, whomever. We'd shoot a few games of pool, Jon would drink (and I'd be extremely jealous of the fact that he could), we'd all talk and hang out, and we'd try to play songs on the jukebox. The jukebox was a bizarre mixture of classic rock, chart compilations circa 1992, country, and alt. rock. However, among the otherwise sketchy selection, was the entire "Out Of Time" LP. So always one of the group would go up and select it. Or at least choice cuts. Of course, the jukebox was a bit finicky, as sometimes it would play our selections just fine, sometimes it would only play a few of them, and occasionally it would play one or two songs, then play a half dozen of someone else's, then maybe if it was feeling generous, play the rest of ours. I can't tell you how many times we just left after our games of pool were over, not feeling like waiting out the crapshoot of hearing the rest of our tunes. So yes, "Out Of Time" is inexorably linked for me to that scene. I'll also never forget the inevitable singalong whenever Half A World Away came up. The line "I had too much to drink, I didn't think, didn't think of you" always got a rousing raise in volume. Didn't matter if we'd been drinking or not. This morning, as I locked my front door, getting ready to take some documents she'd forgotten to Erin at work, I heard thudding bass and what sounded like a demented chorus coming from the apartment right across the hall. I listened a bit closer and it turned out to be rap on the stereo, with the guy who lives there rapping along, accompanied by his very small child. His child, who can't be more than four years old. So you hear this booming machismo along with a little girl's voice and the laughter of her mother. Had a busy but enjoyable 4th yesterday. Got up way early to meet Erin's family so we could go downtown for the VP Parade. Parade was great, but even by 11am, the heat (it ended up being about 96 degrees yesterday, with humidity it felt like 110) was too much to take, so we retreated indoors for some lunch. Came back home for a bit, Erin napped and I watched a bit of baseball before we headed over to my aunt's house for swimming, barbecue and fireworks. Had a lot of fun there, the heat of the day was dying down a bit, and the pool helped considerably, as well. Ate good BBQ chicken and fresh tomatoes, drank a few Budweisers. Drove Erin to the metro, dropper her off to meet her family back downtown for fireworks, and I drove back to my aunt's for fireworks there. Didn't get home till 11 o'clock, and it was even later till I'd picked Erin up from Delmar station and we got home and to bed. So this morning (becoming afternoon), I'm sitting around in AC, blinds drawn, shirt off, big soda on the table next to me, headphones on. It's my tried and true method of dealing with summertime atmospheric conditions that resemble that of the surface of Venus. Come six or seven o'clock tonight it'll be suitable for me to emerge. But until then, it's more hanging out in my artificial cold snap. P.S. -- photos!
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